Guyver: The Bioboosted Armor
Guyver: The Bioboosted Armor(強殖装甲ガイバー Kyōshoku Sōkō Gaibā) is a Japanese anime series based on the long-running manga series, Bio Booster Armor Guyver, written by Yoshiki Takaya, adapting chapters 1 - 59 (volumes 1-10) of the manga. The production was in association with ADV Films and Kadokawa Shoten. The series first episode aired in Japan on August 6, 2005 and the last episode aired on February 18, 2006. Plot Deep behind the facade of everyday life, lies a terrible secretive and manipulative society. The Chronos Corporation has secret plans for world conquest and have spent hundreds of years engineering biological weapons; transforming normal humans into monstrous soldiers, called Zoanoids . A test type Zoanoid, disguised as a normal man, escapes from the organization with a bag containing three items called the Guyver Units . Chronos soldiers attempt to recover the units from the test-type but are unsuccessful; the test-type was discovered with a grenade in his possession and used the grenade, killing himself and scattering the Guyver Units around the area. Meanwhile, two young high school students, Shō Fukamachi and Tetsurō Segawa come across one of the lost Guyver Units. Curious as to what the unit is, Shō accidentally activates the unit which then merges with him, transforming him into "Guyver I." The biological-armor increases his own physical abilities, and grants him a variety of powers and arms him with deadly weapons. Now, Shō must fight for his life and those that are close to him against Zoanoids sent by the evil Chronos Corporation that are in pursuit of the Guyver Units. Determined to recruit the Guyver or recover his armor from him (even if removing it proves fatal), the Chronos Corportation sends Zoanoids after the teenager and targets his friends, relatives or anybody who may know him. Many lives are put at risk, including family friends, entire facilities and his own school as well. The Zoanoid attacks lead to escalating battles that result in the Guyver I learning how to handle high stress situations and battle both mental and physical battles. Thanks to their influence in politics and news media, the general public is kept unaware of the secret war between the Chronos Corportation and the Guyver I. Eventually, Fukamachi meets other Guyver users, and uncovers the secrets behind the origins of the Guyver units, the Zoanoids, humankind and the Chronos Corporation. Characters Most, if not all, of the characters from the original Guyver manga series appear in the new Guyver anime series. Several characters from the new anime series have undergone a slight change of design from their previous looks from the past animated OVA and manga series (see Guyver (OVA) and Bio Booster Armor Guyver). For instance, Shō has a different style, brown hair rather than his original black hair. Mizuki now has black hair in the 2005 series instead of her brown hair from the previous series. Main characters *'Shō Fukamachi'(深町 晶 Fukamachi Shō) :Shō Fukamachi is main protagonist of the series. A 17 year old, second-year student at a Tokyo-area high school, Shō cares deeply for Mizuki Segawa and has a romantic interest in her. Tetsuro Segawa, Mizuki's older brother, is his closest friend. He comes across the mysterious Guyver unit, which merges with him and takes form as "Guyver I." Chronos is now in pursuit of Shō, wanting the return of the Guyver unit. Now, Shō must fight for his life and protect those close to him against the Zoanoids of Chronos. *'Mizuki Segawa' (瀬川 瑞紀 Segawa Mizuki) :Mizuki is a typical school girl that goes to the same school as Shō. She is the younger sister of Tetsuro Segawa, Shō Fukamachi's best friend. At first, she grows a crush on Agito Makishima, but later starts to appreciate Shō a lot more, to the point where her affections have completely shifted over to him. *'Tetsurō Segawa' (瀬川 哲郎 Segawa Tetsurō) :Tetsuro is a chubby third-year student and is Shō's closest friend. He is highly intelligent, keeps his hair cut short and wears glasses. Tetsuro is a Science Fiction fan and the leader of the Sci-Fi society club in the school, which gives him some knowledge to make quite a few assumptions about the things involving the Guyver. *'Agito Makishima' (巻島 顎人 Makishima Agito) :Agito is a third-year student at the same high school the others attend. He almost never allows sentiment to stand in his way. He does not even show much expression in his face, but acts quite friendly at school. He finds a Guyver unit and merges with it to become "Guyver III." Agito also seems to have extensive knowledge on the Guyver and its abilities and exhibits them quite well. Agito seems to have his own agenda when it comes to dealing with Chronos. He is an excellent example of an anti-hero. *'Natsuki Taga' (Taga Natsuki) :A high school girl that attends the same school as Shō and his friends. She is also a close friend to Shō and the Segawa siblings. She becomes of great help to them later when they are forced into hiding after the apparent deaths of Sho, Agito, and Masaki. *'Richard Guyot' (リヒャルト・ギュオー Riharuto Gyuō) :Guyot is tall, powerfully built man. In the beginning of the series, he acted as the commander of Chronos Japan branch after Agito Makishimia's foster father, Genzo Makishima, failed to retrieve the Guyver units. He has an immensely commanding presence. *'Masaki Murakami' (村上征樹 Murakami Masaki) :Masaki was a freelance journalist captured by Cronos and used as a guinea pig in the Zoalord development program. He is a tall, thin young man with shoulder-length hair, and normally wears sunglasses, even at night. He joins with Shō to fight Cronos, having his own revenge in mind. He does not quite trust Agito at first because of Guyver III's earlier connections with Chronos. Other characters *'Fumio Fukamachi' :Shō Fukamachi's Father. *'Genzo Makishima' :Agito Makishima's foster father and ex-Head of Chronos Japan. *'Oswald A. Lisker' :An inspector from Chronos Headquarters. He is "Guyver II." *'Aptom' *'Toshiaki Hayami/Bio-Freezer' *'Hamilcar Barcas' *'Archanfel' *'Sin Rubeo Amniculus' *'Fried'rich von Purg'stall' *'Luggnagg de Krumeggnic' *'Jabir Ibn Hayyan' *'Gaster' *'Lǐ Yǎn-Tuí' *'Derzerb' *'Enzyme II' *'Zerbebuth' *'Elegen' *'ZX-Tole' *'Test Type' *'Kawada' *'Kobashi' *'Misuzawa' *'Dyme' Episodes Staff Japanese Staff *Director: Katsuhito Akiyama *Series Composition: Junki Takegami *Scenario: :Junki Takegami :Koji Ueda :Natsuko Takahashi :Yasuko Kobayashi :Yuuji Hosono *Music: Hayato Matsuo *Original Manga: Yoshiki Takaya *Character Design: Yoshihiko Umakoshi *Chief Animation Director: :Masato Sawada :Yuji Ikeda *Creature Design: Masato Sawada *General Supervision: Yoshiki Takaya *Sound director: Jun Watanabe *Animation Production: Oriental Light and Magic *Broadcaster: WOWOW *Production: :ADV Films :GENCO :Kadokawa Pictures :Sojitz Corporation :WOWOW English Staff *ADR Director: Charles Campbell *Translation: Brendan Frayne *ADR Script: Clint Bickham *DVD Graphics: Larry Koteff *Editing: :Eddie Shannon Jr. :Neil O'Sullivan :Patrick Givens :Roberto Garcia *Executive producer: :Joey Goubeaud :John Ledford :Mark Williams *International Coordination: Toru Iwakami *Mix: Matt Wittmeyer *Packaging Design: Larry Koteff *Post-Production Manager: Shelly Thomas *Producer: Scott McClennen *Production Assistant: :Maki Nagano :Monica Jimenez :Paul Mericle *Production manager: Joey Goubeaud *Recording engineer: :Adam Jones :Afshar Kharat :Bobby Gordon *Senior Translator: Javier Lopez *Sound Design: Matt Wittmeyer *Translation Proofer: Kaoru Bertrand *ADR Recording: ADV Studios *Distributor: Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd. (Australia & New Zealand) *DVD Production: ADV Studios *Licensed by: Funimation Entertainment Cast Japanese Cast English Cast * Chris Patton as Sho Fukamachi * Lowell Bartholomee as Tetsuro Segawa * Luci Christan as Mizuki Segawa * Jason Douglas as Oswald A. Lisker * Brian Jepson as Agito Makishima * Bill Wise as Richard Guyot * Gray Haddock as Archanfel * Andrew Love as Masaki Murakami * Brittney Karbowiski as Shizu Onuma * John Swasey as Fumio Fukamachi * Vic Mignogna as Dr. Shirai * Brando Austin as Genzo Makishima * Josh Grelle as Gaster Theme songs * Opening THEME - "Waiting for" - Reiri (Líng-Lì Yáng) * Ending THEME - "Cotton Candy" - Bonnie Pink Differences from the past series The Guyver TV series covers more of the original manga storyline than the 12 episode OVA series, being more loyal to the manga, mainly the first 10 or so volumes (covering everything up to the arrival of Guyver Gigantic). However there are key differences between the anime variation and original manga series: * Guyver II/Oswald A. Lisker survives his first battle with Guyver I due to him and Tetsuro's escaping during the first of Guyver II's many Control Medal malfunctions. He is even kept from fighting up until the final episode of the "Cronos Japan Arc" because he is the only Guyver in Chronos' possession. Though he does meet the same end with a final grotesque malfunction, and then is caught in the collapse of Cronos Japan's HQ, all thanks to their self-destruct sequence. **Also, instead of showed up soon after Vamore and his fellow Zoanoid group's demise, Lisker made his confrontation with Sho after he killed Synevite's group that sent one day after Vamore's demise. * *The only weapon Guyver II had used in the manga is the "Head Beam" and nothing else. In the anime he had also used the "High Frequency Vibration Sword" and the "Mega Smasher" weapons. He even explained to Sho how those weapons worked in the battle. * In the manga, Aptom held Mizuki hostage in order to force Sho to call out the Guyver armor and cut off Mizuki's clothing completely, leaving her naked in front of Shō. However, in the anime series, Aptom only cut parts of Mizuki's clothing off. * In an homage to the popular story in the manga where Guyver I/Shō's disembodied arm from the battle with Enzyme mutates into a clone, the dissolving Guyver I in the Enzyme battle turns into the clone's final form. Many of these changes were, however, made with the permission and even involvement of Yoshiki Takaya. Subsequent releases * The Guyver TV series made its U.S. TV premiere on October 26, 2006 on the Anime Network, airing only the first episode and later, the rest of the series. The first episode was also viewable for free at IGN Entertainment, Inc. for a short period of time. * The first four episodes were released in America on November 14, 2006 on DVD. * Currently 16 episodes of the television series are available through Xbox 360, downloadable via Xbox live marketplace. * It also aired in the UK during the now non-existent Anime Network block on Propeller TV (Sky Digital Channel: 195) from June to November 2007. * In spite of the fact that ADV helped produce Guyver: The Bioboosted Armor, this was one of over thirty titles that FUNimation picked up licenses for from Sojitz. According to a representative of Lace, however, ADV Films still has the German and UK rights to the animeAnimeY - News Videos References Category:Universes